Murdoch and Buddhism

Abstract

The chapter examines Iris Murdoch’s affinities with, and differences from, Buddhist thought and practice by focussing on the fact that both Murdoch’s philosophy and common forms of Buddhism are self-cultivation philosophies. After elaborating the concept of self-cultivation philosophy, I explain why The Sovereignty of Good is plausibly understood as a proposal for a self-cultivation philosophy that eschews the supernatural elements of Christianity and yet seeks some elements of religion needed for the cultivation practices it embraces. I then give a brief account of some ways in which Buddhism may be understood as a self-cultivation philosophy. This provides a basis for understanding Murdoch’s increased interest in Buddhism in the decades after Sovereignty was published. This interest culminated in the discussion of the Zen writer Katsuki Sekida in Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. I show that Murdoch had a qualified appreciation of some Zen practices as candidates for the cultivation practices she was seeking in Sovereignty. However, Murdoch’s philosophy is not a Buddhist philosophy. In fact, its metaphysics is rather different from any form of Buddhist metaphysics. Nonetheless, I show that there are several resources in Buddhist self-cultivation philosophies that could respond to the central concerns of Murdoch’s self-cultivation philosophy.